Now Showing: Salem's Lot

Salem's Lot
Genre: Horror
Director: Samuel Bayer
Based on the novel by Stephen King
Cast: Chris Pine, Mark Rylance, William Hurt, Maika Monroe, David Harbour, Stephen Lang, Alan Tudyk, Finn Wolfhard, Owen Teague

Plot: Ben Mears (Chris Pine), a writer who spent part of his childhood in Jerusalem's Lot, Maine, has returned after twenty-five years. He quickly becomes friends with high-school teacher Matt Burke (David Harbour) and strikes up a passionate romantic relationship with Susan Norton (Maika Monroe), a young college graduate.

Ben starts writing a book about the Marsten House, an abandoned house where he had a bad experience as a child. Mears learns that the Marsten House—the former home of Depression-era hitman Hubert "Hubie" Marsten—has been purchased by Kurt Barlow (Mark Rylance), an Austrian immigrant who has arrived in the Lot ostensibly to open an antique store. Barlow is on an extended buying trip. Only Barlow's business partner, Richard Straker (William Hurt), is ever seen in public.

After the disappearance of a boy named Ralphie Glick, and the death of his brother Danny (Owen Teague), who becomes the town's first vampire, the locals quickly become infected with vampirism. Danny fails, however, to infect Mark Petrie (Finn Wolfhard), who resists him successfully by holding a plastic cross in Danny's face. Within several days many of the townspeople are turned into vampires.

Ben Mears and Susan are joined by Matt Burke and his doctor, Jimmy Cody (Alan Tudyk), along with young Mark Petrie and the local priest, Father Callahan (Stephen Lang), in an effort to fight the spread of new vampires. Susan is captured by Barlow and made into a vampire, eventually being staked through the heart by Mears.

When Father Callahan and Mark head over to Mark's parents to explain the danger the family is in, the power is suddenly cut and Barlow appears. He kills Mark's parents by smashing their heads together, but does not infect them. Barlow then takes Mark hostage briefly. Callahan pulls out his cross in an attempt to drive him off, and for a time it works, until Barlow challenges him to throw away the cross. Callahan, not having faith enough to do so, is soon overwhelmed by Barlow, who takes the now-useless cross and snaps it in two. Barlow then forces Callahan to drink his vampire blood. When Callahan tries to re-enter his church he burns his hands on the door, preventing him from going inside.

Jimmy Cody is killed when he falls from a rigged staircase and is impaled by knives set up by the one-time denizens of the boarding house, Mears' one-time residence, who have now all become vampires. Ben Mears and Mark Petrie succeed in destroying the master vampire Barlow, but are lucky to escape with their lives and are forced to leave the town to the now leaderless vampires.

Ben, knowing that there are too many hiding places for the vampires, deliberately starts a brush fire in the woods near the town with the intent of destroying it and the Marsten House once and for all.